Swimmer Alex Meyer tackles 10K with fallen friend on his mind

By Jon Saraceno, USA TODAY

Updated

LONDON
–
Alex Meyer's lithe body kept churning Friday through the waters of The Serpentine, as his fatigued mind attempted to keep pace. The 24-year-old American was hopelessly behind in the Olympic marathon 10-kilometer swim, and he knew it.

Andrew P. Scott, USA TODAY Sports

Alex Meyer swims in the men's open water 10K during the London Olympics at Hyde Park on Friday.

Alex Meyer swims in the men's open water 10K during the London Olympics at Hyde Park on Friday.

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Meyer's legs propelled him through the last loop at the artificial lake created in the 1700s inside idyllic Hyde Park, the site of a memorial fountain dedicated to Princess Diana and a place where the Rolling Stones rock-and-rolled it in the '60s.

Still, as Meyer's 5-10, 155-pound frame continued its relentless torpedo strokes, he could not help but think of what might have been. His close friend and teammate, Fran Crippen, undoubtedly would have been swimming alongside of him on a gorgeous, sunny and decidedly un-English afternoon. But he was gone.

This was their shared dream. It died, along with Crippen, 22 months ago in the too-warm waters of the United Arab Emirates. He was 26.

"I was battling some pretty negative thoughts on the last lap (and) trying to keep them subdued," said Meyer, a Boston resident and native of Ithaca, N.Y. "I just didn't have it at the end."

Since that tragic day overseas, he has done his best to keep his mentor's legacy alive. And he has.

Crippen died because of heat exhaustion when he drowned during a 10K World Cup race, where air temperatures approached 100 degrees and the water temperature was 83 degrees. The air temperature Thursday was 80, the water an ideal 70. Twenty-five of the world's finest open-water swimmers were shadowed by eight pontoons, four kayaks and one Jet Ski to ensure that what happened to Crippen never could happen again.

He launched himself with a nice start. After the first one-mile loop, Meyer was fourth. He gained water in the second loop as he doggedly pursued leaders Richard Weinberger of Canada and Andreas Waschburger of Germany.

But Meyer slipped to ninth after the third lap, then badly miscalculated a portion of the next loop and crashed into some competitors.

"There was one feeding station on the fourth lap where I just got like totally pummeled," he said. "I lost probably a good 10 seconds there, and I don't think I really recovered from that. I probably could have done a better job of keeping my head up going into that one and not running into people."

He slipped to 12th. By the end of the penultimate loop, he was 14th.

"I just kind of fell off the wagon a little bit," he said dejectedly. "I didn't really have the extra little bit of magic to bring it home the last 5K."

U.S. open-water coach Tim Murphy, who coached Meyer at Harvard, said his swimmer "got banged around, got pounded a couple of times."

"Every little bit sorta takes a little starch out of you," Murphy said. "When it came time for everyone to move, he had difficulty (and) never broke loose.

"I think he did his best. There's no shame in that at all. He just banged heads with the best open-water swimmers in the world. For him, it was a rough race."

In a testament of their affection for him, Meyer's parents, aunts and uncles, friends and former Harvard teammates verbally embraced him with each passing mile in the six-lap, 6.2-mile marathon. Laser-like focus is critical in the sport's solitary, grueling test of body and mind. In this instance, Meyer was able to retain it most of the time, he said.

"Every time I swam by (his support team), I had a little surge of energy," Meyer said. (But) I was thinking of (him) a little bit."

So was Crippen's sorrow-stricken mother, Pat, who sat home in Conshohocken, Pa., a Philadelphia suburb, unable to watch the marathon on TV. Meyer said he spoke to Crippen's parents, including his father, Pete, the previous evening.

"They just said, 'Good luck, be safe,' " he said. "There were some tears but it was good to talk with them."

Asked what he was specifically thinking in regards to his late teammate, Meyer paused.

"Ah, I don't know. I don't know," he said, voice trailing off.

He did not want to discuss a scrapbook he was keeping to memorialize his fallen teammate.

On that fateful afternoon on Oct. 23, 2010, Meyer, seated on a rock, waited with camera in hand so he could videotape his pal's finish. Meyer was not racing that day because a week prior to the competition, he had undergone an emergency appendectomy.

The fastest swimmers completed the race. Then everyone was out of the water.

Anxiously, Meyer waited. And he kept waiting.

Five minutes, 10 minutes, 20 minutes.

Where was Fran, he wondered.

Crippen never made it back.

Fearing the worst, Meyer and another U.S. swimmer climbed aboard a Jet Ski and began a frantic search. Two hours later, deep-sea divers recovered Crippen's body near the race's last buoy.

Thre is no race-course map to navigate grief.

"Everybody handles it in his own unique way," Murphy said. "He has had his highs and his lows. He's had to mature a great deal. A lot of good has come out of a very tragic situation. That's to Alex's credit.

"You just never know. I haven't spoken to Alex about this but I would guess it was part of this race for him. It has been part of who he is. I've seen it help him. I don't know if it hurt him today."